The 30 Best Bant Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on October 30, 2023

Chulane, Teller of Tales | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

Original rankings pre-March of the Machine by Jake

Choosing a color (or colors!), choosing a commander, and choosing a theme are all important and unexpectedly difficult decisions every EDH player has to go through before building a new deck. If you build a new one every week (albeit online), then you’ve probably been around each color combination more than once. But many players haven’t, and even worse that they haven’t delved into the color shard of Bant ().

Bant is an efficient and proactive color shard that many blue and green players enjoy. Today I’m going to tell you why you should choose a Bant commander, give you a list of some to think about, and end off with a Bant decklist to get the gears in your mind turning.

Let’s get started!

Why Go with a Bant Commander?

Tuvasa the Sunlit | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

Bant offers a clean and efficient playstyle that enjoys playing the value game through proactive defensive spells and efficient creatures.

White and blue get even better when you have access to fast mana since many of their big threats and removal demand to colorless mana plus their main colors. Green brings large creatures and enchantment/artifact removal to keep your opponents on their toes.

You’ll enjoy Bant if you enjoy ramping into a strong tap-out control playstyle, and you should definitely read on and look at some of the best commanders in this wedge.

#30. Arcades Sabboth

Let’s start with a classic commander, one of the original Elder Dragons. Sadly Arcades Sabboth’s time in the sun has passed. The Elder Dragons that spawned our favorite format have pretty universally gotten surpassed by more efficient options that don’t require extra mana investment in your upkeep.

That said, you can still do some work with Arcades. It lends itself well to the helm of a defenders or toughness-matters deck, using cards like High Alert and Huatli, the Sun's Heart, so your creatures with high toughness deal tons of damage. Arcades can’t buff them while they attack but instead gives you powerful defense.

This defense is enhanced by cards like Ajani, the Greathearted and Always Watching that give you team vigilance for unparalleled offensive and defensive power as you throw your Giant Ox and Wall of Blossoms at your opponents for tons of damage while keeping them back on defense.

#29. Ragnar

A lot of the commanders from Legends have aged as poorly as the Elder Dragons. They’re just from a different era of Magic. It doesn’t mean you can’t teach a new dog some old tricks, and there are some interesting things you could do with Ragnar.

This commander has potential as a surprise control commander. The activated ability is a little expensive but could get used in coordination with wraths like Supreme Verdict and Day of Judgment to protect your board while destroying everything else.

Cards like Seedborn Muse and Freed from the Real can help get multiple activations of Ragnar. It also pairs well with cards that want to be blocked, like Tolarian Entrancer with Lure effects, protecting your creatures to get maximum value.

#28. Jenara, Asura of War

Jenara, Asura of War gives Bant an angel commander that could be a typal deck, or a deck that cares about +1/+1 counters. But since Jenara can only put counters on itself, the best route is likely a Voltron strategy.

Evasion and protection are the most necessary elements for a Voltron commander. Jenara already has flying, so you'll want to up the defensive power. Bant has several tricks that protect your cards, like Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Slip Out the Back, or Loran's Escape.

You'll want to buff Jenara’s power too. Some Voltron classics like Fireshrieker help here. You can use counter synergies through cards like Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Doubling Season to get the most from Jenara’s activated ability. A Training Grounds or Biomancer's Familiar would make the ability even cheaper, so you can spam it every turn.

#27. Angus Mackenzie

We've got another old-school commander in Angus Mackenzie. Its repeatable Fog ability makes it a great commander for a pillow fort deck focusing on planeswalkers as a win condition.

Cards like Seedborn Muse and Village Bell-Ringer help get multiple activations from Angus each turn cycle. You can back Angus’s defensive desires up with classic pillow fort cards like Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety.

Bant is a great superfriends shard as it’s got some of the best planeswalkers of all time. You can play Oko, Thief of Crowns, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, and Teferi, Time Raveler, plus other great options, alongside a little superfriends support from cards like Oath of Nissa and Ichormoon Gauntlet.

#26. Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary

Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary is a commander that wants you to play legendary creatures to amass a huge board state to dominate your pod. There are a few ways to maximize this ability.

You’ll want a bunch of legendary creatures with strong enters-the-battlefield abilities like Barrin, Tolarian Archmage, Vorinclex, and Yasharn, Implacable Earth alongside ways to support these ETBs like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling and Panharmonicon.

After that you want to build out support for your legends and all the tokens they make. Adrix and Nev, Twincasters and Kaheera, the Orphanguard offer some token synergies, while Reki, the History of Kamigawa and Captain Sisay give your legends all the backup they need.

#25. Treva, the Renewer

Bant is a shard with excellent lifegain support, and Treva, the Renewer is one way you can exploit that. You'll need evasion to help our commander get in. Whispersilk Cloak and Lightning Greaves help by making Treva untargetable and giving haste or unblockable.

Once Treva connects, you want to reap the benefits of a massive burst of lifegain. Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn and Nykthos Paragon turn this lifegain into raw power. You can use Drogskol Reaver and Well of Lost Dreams to get a bunch of card draw.

You'll also want to maximize Treva’s lifegain with cards like Painter's Servant and Shifting Sky to get your mana’s worth. The former option also opens the door to exciting combos with cards like Grindstone and Sphinx's Tutelage.

#24. Lagrella, the Magpie

Lagrella, the Magpie gives you a commander that wants to abuse flicker strategies and powerful ETB abilities. It lets you flicker your permanents to get repeated triggers.

Some excellent options involve card draw or ramp. Cards like Mulldrifter and Cloudblazer let you outdraw your opponents while Springbloom Druid and Farhaven Elf give you the mana to play all those cards you’re drawing.

Flicker is an archetype with plenty of support. On top of the cards that helped Jedit, you have tools like Ephemerate and Soulherder for more flickering. Cards like Eerie Interlude and Semester's End represent incredible ETB value and board wipe protection.

#23. Vexyr, Ich-Tekik’s Heir

This one goes out to the Brawl players brewing on Arena. This Alchemy commander uses the seek mechanic to flood the board with Golem tokens. The first way to bolster your Golems is by reaching for Blade Splicer and Master Splicer.

You can also get boosts from Adrix and Nev, Twincasters doubling your tokens. Urza, Prince of Kroog and Tempered Steel provide huge boosts to your enhanced team.

#22. Amareth, the Lustrous

Amareth, the Lustrous is another commander that benefits from abundant ETBs but also wants you to manipulate the top card of your library, so let’s focus on that aspect.

One step to take is to make sure you have a high creature count to increases the odds you'll find a hit. It also lets you play cards like Augur of Autumn and Vizier of the Menagerie alongside Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya to play most of your cards right off the top of your library.

You also get top deck manipulation from cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Sensei's Divining Top. Amareth’s ability can also offset the tempo of cards like Worldly Tutor and Enlightened Tutor, letting you get cards the same turn you tutor for them.

#21. Katilda and Lier

Katilda and Lier make a fascinating team-up card that marries human typal synergies with a spellslinger strategy. One outlet for this is in an aggressive deck abusing the flashback ability to take extra turns.

This deck wants plenty of efficient humans and ways to buff them with cards like Thalia's Lieutenant, Adaptive Automaton, and Coppercoat Vanguard. Going wide is aided by cards that create Human tokens like Torens, Fist of the Angels and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar.

Once you have these humans assembled, you'll close things out with extra turns. You want as many extra turn spells that don’t exile themselves as possible, like Time Warp, Temporal Mastery, Time Stretch, and Walk the Aeons with the goal of taking enough extra turns that we bury your opponents beneath your human army.

#20. Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor

Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor is a rare Bant commander that cares about the graveyard and artifacts that aren’t equipment or creatures. It lets you fill your graveyard by tapping your creatures, an effect you can embellish with effects like Seedborn Muse, Drumbellower, Enhanced Surveillance, and Mesmeric Orb.

You'll need artifacts to get back. Tocasia limits what comes back, so focusing on small, high-impact artifacts works best. This leads to everybody’s favorite archetype: stax! You can get lots of value from using Tocasia to reanimate lots of artifacts like Winter Orb, Ensnaring Bridge, and Cursed Totem. All the milling gives you time to see what you need and some selectiveness.

Once you're ready to win, you can use Toscia to get a few large artifacts, like Portal to Phyrexia and Darksteel Reactor that can close out the game. A few ways to get Tocasia itself into the graveyard, like Perilous Research and Angelic Purge, are also important.

#19. Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl

Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl is a massive commander for the Bant players embracing their inner Timmy. Giving your team protection is huge, and there are several things you can do to make use of his attack trigger.

Effects like Strionic Resonator or extra turn spells to get repeated instances of this ability are necessary. Once you're doing this multiple times you can abuse making your creatures 7/7s with creatures balanced around being small like Cold-Eyed Selkie, Kami of Whispered Hopes, and Wild Beastmaster. It can even be a great infect commander alongside Blighted Agent and friends if you’re feeling cheeky.

The second choice is great against your opponent’s creatures. You can use it alongside effects like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Crovax, Ascendant Hero to kill your opponent’s threats while skirting problematic keywords like indestructible.

#18. Gorion, Wise Mentor

Doubling spells is never something to sneeze at, and Gorion, Wise Mentor does it for free. This commander is especially interesting with the upcoming Wilds of Eldraine, which could revisit the mechanic.

You can still do plenty with the cards we have today. Firstly, you can double up on Gorion’s doubling ability with cards like Twinning Staff, Lucky Clover, and Swarm Intelligence. All this copying of instant and sorceries is fantastic alongside magecraft cards like Archmage Emeritus and Deekah, Fractal Theorist.

Of course, you need the adventure cards. Brazen Borrower and Sword Coast Serpent give you board control while you get some stack control from Hypnotic Sprite and Sapphire Dragon. There are tokens to be made with Flaxen Intruder and Horn of Valhalla.

This only brushes the surface of where your adventures can take you!

#17. Perrie, the Pulverizer

Perrie, the Pulverizer is a counters-matter commander that begs to lead a Voltron deck. The shield counter gives it some built-in protection, while its ability gives it a bit of evasion. This evasion gets magnified by creatures like Wingspan Mentor and Zephyr Singer that give it a flying counter.

Ability counters are one of the best ways for you to bulk your unique counter count. Denry Klin, Editor in Chief, Avenging Huntbonder, and Crystalline Giant all get plenty of keywords. You can also look to obscure counters like the hour counters on Midnight Clock, or Instrument of the Bards’s harmony counter for more diversity.

+1/+1 counters will still be this deck’s bread and butter to give Perrie the necessary power to be a Voltron commander. You've got tons of ways to stack and double up on counters in Bant, like Conclave Mentor, Branching Evolution, Pir, Imaginative Rascal, and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider alongside ways to distribute them like Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Hydra's Growth.

#16. Isu the Abominable

Isu the Abominable is one of the best snow commanders you can play. Getting to play your lands and other snow spells off the top of your library practically makes this Future Sight in the command zone for a deck willing to commit to the snow theme, and there are payoffs to doing so.

A snow deck has access to creatures like Ohran Viper and Boreal Outrider to beat down the opponents. Incidental +1/+1 counter synergies from cards like the Outrider work well with your commander and incentivize you to play a few counter doublers.

Snow decks have access to decent removal as well. You can play cards like On Thin Ice and Blizzard Brawl right off the top of your library after tutoring them with spells like Mystical Tutor and Enlightened Tutor.

#15. Kros, Defense Contractor

Kros, Defense Contractor is a unique spin on a counters commander that wants you to give your opponents counters for a group hug strategy. It works well alongside mechanics like support and backup that let you give counters to anything.

There’s plenty of group hug support for this strategy with cards like Generous Patron and Skyboon Evangelist that want you to spread counters everywhere. Goading off Kros’s triggers ensures that things will happen all game, just to other players.

This deck also benefits from proliferate cards like Thrummingbird and Flux Channeler. Once you've got one counter on your opponents’ best creatures, you can proliferate again and again to keep goading that creature while spreading more counters. Before long, nothing can attack you.

#14. Roon of the Hidden Realm

A classic flicker commander, Roon of the Hidden Realm enables tons of shenanigans.

You'll want to support it first and foremost with cards like Drumbellower and Seedborn Muse that get as many activations from Roon as you can get. This gets further enhanced by cards like Biomancer's Familiar and Training Grounds that reduce the cost of Roon’s ability.

While Roon can be a great value commander, it also works as a combo enabler. Intruder Alarm has plenty of combos and works well with Roon. It becomes laughably easy to generate infinite mana to pump into something like Walking Ballista when you pair Roon with something that produces mana when it enters the battlefield, like Peregrine Drake or Palinchron.

#13. Phelddagrif

Phelddagrif is one of the first group hug commanders, a strategy that revolves around giving everyone (including you) plenty of resources which not only supplies you with your own combo pieces and threats, but also prevents you from becoming too big of a threat.

Game-enders and win conditions are the most important part of a group hug strategy. It can be easy to get caught up in table-wide benefits and defensive buildup, which could create a security dilemma of sorts. Combo is the most efficient and consistent way to win since you naturally have card advantage from your group hug pieces plus plenty of time to put them together from not being killed.

There are a couple main combo lines with the most prominent being Deadeye Navigator paired with Peregrine Drake for infinite mana to deck your opponents with your commander's activated abilities. There are also lines with Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac to win by drawing all the cards in your deck and then dropping them to win on the spot.

Approach of the Second Sun can also be an excellent choice in lower-power decks. Bant can run plenty of sorcery tutors like Personal Tutor that can make it a 2-turn combo.

#12. Rubinia Soulsinger

Stealing your opponents' creatures is a great way to deprive your opponent of threats while expanding your own armies. It’s even better in Commander. You can steal opposing commanders to “remove” them without them changing zones, forcing your opponents to use their removal to take out their commander.

Rubinia Soulsinger is a great commander for this strategy. You'll need a bunch of protective spells for Rubina. Bant has incredible options. Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Loran's Escape, and Slip Out the Back are just a few options that blank spot removal and wraths for maximum protection.

You'll want to double up on Rubina's ability as much as possible. Cards like Strionic Resonator and Rings of Brighthearth are great. You can also copy Rubina with cards like Spark Double, Double Major, and Irenicus's Vile Duplication to steal multiple creatures and make your opponents have as many answers.

#11. Shanna, Purifying Blade

Shanna, Purifying Blade is another lifegain commander that benefits from steady lifegain. Cards like Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant ensure you'll always gain a little life each turn so you can spend a little mana to draw cards.

You can increase your lifegain with cards like Cleric Class and Alhammarret's Archive and get paid off for gaining so much life with Blossoming Bogbeast and Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn. You'll have access to so many cards that effects like Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel are critical.

Your commander synergizes particularly well with Accomplished Alchemist since you'll always pay X in full.

#10. Rafiq of the Many

Rafiq of the Many is a commander from all the way back in Shards of Alara that’s most often used in exalted-based decks.

Rafiq gives double strike on top of the counters that further incentivizes you to play around it. Bant has access to lots of powerful cards with exalted, most notably Noble Hierarch, which has seen play across a multitude of Magic formats.

Exalted is a mechanic that starts to add up on its own and can turn mediocre attackers like Silent Arbiter into powerful synergistic cards. Rafiq’s double strike bonus also plays a big role in this deck’s success. Dealing double damage is incredible as you can imagine, even more so when you start taking commander damage into account.

#9. Rigo, Streetwise Mentor

Rigo, Streetwise Mentor is an unassuming commander that generates insane card advantage. It works well alongside small unblockable creatures like Slither Blade, Invisible Stalker, and Triton Shorestalker to get ample card draw.

Tokens are also great with Rigo, especially flying tokens like those created by Spectral Procession and Battle Screech. You can go for a minor flying subtheme with cards like Kangee, Sky Warden, which don’t buff your creatures until after they’ve attacked and triggered Rigo.

Buffing after attacks is important to get in damage and card draw. Instants that buff your team, like Rally of Wings and Pride of Conquerors, are solid for this deck, as are creatures like Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart with activated abilities you can use after attacking.

#8. Tuvasa the Sunlit

Tuvasa the Sunlit makes your first enchantment each turn neutral at least and gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control.

Selesnya () is a very enchantment-heavy color combination, and there are lots of powerful ones in blue that make Bant an optimal tri-color for enchantment-based strategies. Just think about Propaganda, Rhystic Study, or Mirrormade in your run-of-the-mill Selesnya enchantress deck. That is what you get to play with when you have Tuvasa in the command zone.

#7. Estrid, the Masked

Estrid, the Masked is another enchantment-based commander that focuses more on auras rather than static-ability enchantments.

Estrid’s secondary ability creates a Mask that protects your permanent from one attempt at removal, which in turn also saves all the other auras on it. One of the biggest downsides of aura strategies is that you sometimes put all your eggs in one basket only to be Doom Bladed, resulting in you losing your enchantments. Totem armor prevents that (and sweepers) and makes you much more resilient to removal.

#6. Falco Spara, Pactweaver

Falco Spara, Pactweaver gives you a counters commander that wants to remove counters for card advantage. It’s an interesting take on the archetype. While Falco works with many traditional counters synergies, several works well with this one.

Creatures that get counters as a downside love Falco. You can ramp a bunch of Devoted Druid (ignoring all the infinites with this card) and get some much value from persist cards like Glen Elendra Archmage and Aerie Ouphes it should be illegal.

Falco is another commander that gets lots of value from cards like Sensei's Divining Top and Jace, the Mind Sculptor that manipulate the top of your deck, so you're always casting the most relevant spells. It gets even better backup from Vega, the Watcher and Sage of the Beyond that reward you for casting spells from zones other than your hand.

#5. Kestia, the Cultivator

Kestia, the Cultivator is an enchantment commander that wants you to get aggressive and rewards you with one of the best game actions in Magic: drawing cards!

An abundance of enchantment creatures like Eidolon of Blossoms and Destiny Spinner help this deck out, as do powerful auras like Rancor and Ancestral Mask. You'll also want plenty of protective spells to protect these pieces. You have lots of support for this theme.

Bant is full of enchantresses like Mesa Enchantress and Argothian Enchantress for more card draw, but cards like Winds of Rath and Brilliant Restoration give the deck lots of resiliency in a long game.

#4. Galea, Kindler of Hope

Galea, Kindler of Hope (nope, not Gaea) is another aura-based commander. But this one also promotes the use of equipment with free first-time equip costs. The equip cost is often the balancing power in terms of powerful equipments and artifacts since it limits how quickly the artifact can be put to use. Having this removed with your commander essentially buffs every existing equipment and makes some of them ridiculously strong.

The most obvious is something like Colossus Hammer, which is now just a 1-mana +10/+10. Holy Avenger also gets much stronger since you can get it plus an extra aura equipped for just . And the value isn’t restricted to just huge artifacts. Cheaper equipment like Basilisk Collar and Winged Boots also become great.

Don’t make the mistake of building this as an enchantment-heavy deck. That isn’t the lane you want to commit so heavily to. Enchantment decks get their strength from having lots of enchantment triggers to draw cards from Enchantress effects, which you won’t want. Instead, use the enchantment side of this commander for cards like Shielding Plax or Eel Umbra rather than something like Sigil of the Empty Throne.

#3. Arcades, the Strategist

This version of Arcades promotes a defender-based strategy that's very different from most other Bant commanders. Defender is a very unique mechanic and not one that many players know how to effectively combat at a casual table.

There are plenty of walls to include and you probably don’t know of many (if not most) of them since they’re relatively underplayed. I’d bet you’ve never heard of Wall of Junk or Shield Sphere even though they’re some of the the best cards in the deck.

The main advice I’ll give you when building or playing a defender/wall-based deck is to include ample protection for your commander. Arcades, the Strategist being stuck under Oblivion Ring/Detention Sphere basically hits this deck’s off switch. This can be done with reactive protection in counterspells or proactive protection in things that give hexproof or totem armor, like Eel Umbra.

#2. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is a classic stax commander. If you enjoy seeing your opponents get visibly frustrated and say things like “I can’t play the game” or “why would any happy person do this?” then you’ve found your card.

Winter Orb and Static Orb are must-haves to keep their mana down. You have Esper Sentinel, Mystic Remora, and Rhystic Study to keep your hands full while disincentivizing their own cards. Finally you want to include Cyclonic Rift, Trinisphere, Meekstone, and Sphere of Resistance to make their life a living hell.

You want to include as many untap and mana effects as possible you keep you out of the line of sight of these stax pieces. Seedborn Muse, Circle of Dreams Druid, and mana dorks like Fyndhorn Elves come in clutch here. You also want single-card game enders that provide enough power to overcome whatever our opponents manage to get out before being shut down if resolved. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is great for this since it’s hard to remove, makes your commander a 4/5 flier, wipes out most of your opponents’ mana dorks, and makes your dorks actual threats.

#1. Chulane, Teller of Tales

Not only is Chulane, Teller of Tales the most played and most powerful commander in Bant, it’s also one of the most diverse commanders in the format. Chulane is a viable commander for a long list of strategies including pod, bounce, a few typal themes, blink, landfall, and more. I’ll focus on the pod strategy when it comes to card suggestions and creatures at each mana value.

The best part of Chulane, Teller of Tales’s abilities is the fact that you get extra incentives to play with your creatures and take advantage of enter-the-battlefield effects. You’re already heavily building around those as a pod deck and being able to return creatures for to get a second use of Avenger of Zendikar or Craterhoof Behemoth is amazing.

A pod deck wins through value (and also combo!) at the end of the day and this commander heavily emphasizes that idea.

Commander Decklist: Phelddagrif Group Hug

Phelddagrif | Illustration by Amy Weber

I’m choosing to showcase Phelddagrif for our sample list today because I see group hug as an underrated and underplayed strategy in Commander. Most players seem to get caught up in playing big spells and doing ultra-powerful things and I think they’re missing out on the pleasure of playing table-wide buffs and just relaxing.

In case you don’t already know, group hug is a strategy that succeeds when it’s allowed to grow and gather resources in a longer game of Commander. It does this by directly incentivizing opponents to not target or kill you with table-wide benefits in cards like Dictate of Kruphix and Dictate of Karametra. You play more beneficial enchantments and creatures as the game progresses and your game plan radically shifts from the pacifist in the corner to planning how quickly you can combo off and win.

Piloting this deck is pretty straightforward: you want to make friends with those playing around you. Play your enchantments with a smile, joke about how your deck is totally not a threat, and have your win conditions lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity. Playing politics is an excellent tool to take advantage of and this deck does it better than any other.

Commanding Conclusion

Arcades, the Strategist | Illustration by Even Amundsen

That wraps up the rankings for the best Bant commanders in Magic!

But I want to know what you think. Are there any rankings specifically you think are off, or even spot on? Let me know down in the comments or over on our official Draftsim Discord.

Bant not your preferred color trio? Check these out: Abzan, Mardu, Sultai, Jund, Jeskai, Grixis, Temur, Naya.

Until next time, stay safe and stay healthy!